VP8PJ South Orkney Isl. worked on 60m

VP8PJ from South Orkney is quite strong on 60m the last few days. I've seen a lucky contact from my neighbourstation PA4O but didn't have luck myself. Imagine as soon as VP8PJ calls on 60m at least 50 or more stations are calling him at the same time. The trick is to find a open spot in the waterfall that is open on their side as well. And then you need luck to get on top in their CQ callers list.....not easy since that is random. What I actually want to tell is that you need just plain luck to work this station. It has nothing to do with power, large antenna or operating skills (although it always helps) you just need to call and hope VP8PJ will reply....

Did I have luck...? Yes I did....

Good luck to all that want to make the contact and didn't succeed yet. 

Perserverance will do the trick, and a whole lot of luck!

MFJ-948 to S-match update progress

Update 27-Feb-2020: Tnx to PA0VAJ Jan we discovered a huge fault in the diagram. I guess I need to solder wires to other places. I'm curious if you as smart reader will discover this huge fault. Hint: transformer. Of course, more to follow...

Original idea from the MFJ-989D to S-match conversion by PA0FRI. First tests are not promising.

The problem is room...

The coil needs to be isolated from "earth". It is, but it is probabely too close to the alu box floor causing a kind of capacitive loading. I'm also not shure the earth connection through the core of the S-match transformer is a wise choice. I will make some mods and test again.

For those that are interested:

MFJ-948 conversion to S-match scehematic diagram

Note: You cannot switch the transformer independable to 2 antenna's. You connect coax to the PL connector (coax 2) or open line to the coil or the capacitor(s). Not both at the same time! Switch is also used to connect second capacitor in parallel for low bands.

MFJ-948 to S-match conversion update

Just a teaser, more to follow...